Tuesday

Jul.
25, 2000

Ties

Poem: "Ties," by Michael
Chitwood, from The Weave Room (University of Chicago Press).

On this day in 1914, before leaving Barcelona for America, 11-year-old
Anais Nin made her first diary entry: "I am sorry to think we are leaving
a country that has been like a mother and a lucky charm to me."

It's the birthday of saxophonist Johnny Hodges, born
in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1906). He took up the soprano sax when he was
14, and later specialized on the alto. Hodges joined Duke Ellington's orchestra
in 1928, and was a soloist and mainstay of the ensemble until his death in
1970. Among his best known solos are those on "Warm Valley" and "Passion Flower."
His nickname 'Rabbit' came from his love of lettuce-and-tomato sandwiches.
As he grew older, Hodges used fewer and fewer notes in his solos, preferring
to stay closer to the melody.

It's the birthday of novelist and playwright Elias Canetti,
born in Ruse, Bulgaria (1905). When he was 6, his family moved to Manchester,
England, where his father died. The next year they moved to Vienna, then to
Zurich and Frankfurt. He grew up speaking German, English, French and Bulgarian,
but wrote in German. He became fascinated by crowds after he saw street riots
in Frankfurt in the 1920s, and wrote a novel to describe the madness he'd
witnessed -- Die Blendung (1936--The Tower of Babel). He wrote two
plays about the rise of fascism, The Wedding and Comedy of Vanity--before
fleeing to Paris, and then London, ahead of the Nazis. He then wrote a book-length
essay about fascism, Masse und Macht (1960--Crowds and Power), and
later, 4 volumes of memoirs. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1981. He died in Zurich in 1994, at the age of 89, and was buried next
to James Joyce.

It's the birthday of plain-spoken philosopher Eric Hoffer,
born in New York City (1902). He worked as a longshoreman in San Francisco
for most of his life, even after his writing had made him famous. His books
include The True Believer (1951), The Passionate State of Mind
(1955) and Reflections on the Human Condition (1972). He said,

"Ah, don't talk to me about Freud. Freud lived in a tight little
circle in Vienna, and inside that tight little circle was another tight
little circle, and inside that tight little circle was still another
tight little circle. What applies to that poor man, Freud, does not necessarily
apply to me."

It's the birthday of drama impresario David Belasco,
born in San Francisco (1853). He moved to New York City and produced 374 plays
between about 1884 and 1926.

It's the birthday of painter Thomas Eakins, born in Philadelphia
(1844).

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